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The Long Dark Hall main poster

The Long Dark Hall

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6.4/10 • 9

1951-02-061h 26m

CrimeDrama

Two great Broadway stars at their greatest!

A devoted family man tries to help a beautiful alcoholic showgirl with her life, and becomes the the only suspect when someone else murders her.

Directors
Anthony Bushell, Reginald Beck
Editors
Tom Simpson

Top Billed Cast

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  1. Rex Harrison

    Rex Harrison

    Arthur Groome

  2. Lilli Palmer

    Lilli Palmer

    Mary Groome

  3. Tania Heald

    Tania Heald

    Sheila Groome

  4. Henrietta Barry

    Henrietta Barry

    Rosemary Groome

  5. Dora Sevening

    Dora Sevening

    Mary's mother

  6. Ronald Simpson

    Ronald Simpson

    Mary's father

  7. Anthony Dawson

    Anthony Dawson

    The Man

  8. Brenda De Banzie

    Brenda De Banzie

    Mrs Rogers

  9. Ballard Berkeley

    Ballard Berkeley

    Supt. Maxey

Reviews1

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John Chard Avatar

John Chard

Jan 26, 2020

7/10

Circumstantial evidence old boy. Juries won't have it. They don't like it and they don't trust it. When Arthur Groome (Rex Harrison) finds his girlfriend murdered at her Earls Court flat and becomes stricken with grief and fear and promptly runs from the scene of the crime. Questioned by the police about the crime, Arthur, a married man, in panic denies all knowledge of the girl. Soon, however, he finds himself charged with murder and inexorably drawn towards the gallows... Directed by Anthony Bushell and Reginald Beck, it is adapted to screenplay by Nunnally Johnson and William Fairchild from Edgar Lustgarten's novel. Harrison's real life wife at the time, Lilli Palmer, plays his loyal spouse here, while Benjamin Frankel scores the music and Wilkie Cooper is the cinematographer. Largely ignored and underseen these days, due in the main that some critics of the time noted it has uncomfortable parallels to the real life Harrison and Carole Landis suicide affair - plus Harrison himself quickly denounced the film as dreadful - it's actually a decent wrong man court case picture often filmed in gorgeous film noir styles. There is no mystery element here, for we know Arthur is innocent, and in fact we know who the killer is. We are given two murders in the first twenty minutes, each a year apart, the first is photographed on the outside in shadows, gaslights and upon a moist cobbled alleyway. The second, where the object of Arthur's lovelorn attention (Patricia Cutts) resides, is stifling in its cruel intensity. It's a sly story of obsession, circumstantial devilments, manipulation and somewhat oddly, loyalty. The suspense is ramped up as Arthur gets ever deeper in the mire during the court case (look how Cooper photographs the critical sequences in court), while his loving wife is being befriended by the real murderer (a wonderfully rat faced Anthony Dawson) who has his own distorted motives that he wants to bare out. Viewing it now the police work due to the writing comes off as being very shoddy, and the finale is just a bit too much leftfield to wholly satisfy. Yet this is a very tidy Brit-Noir styled suspenser that comes recommended to fans of leading man and noirsh visuals. 7/10

Media

  • The Long Dark Hall poster
  • The Long Dark Hall poster
  • The Long Dark Hall poster

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Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
--
Revenue
--
Keywords
falsely accuseddevoted family man